India vs China PR: Hope for the national team for AFC Asian Cup?

​Both teams settle for a draw in an international friendly at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium. Image: Instagram/afcasiancup

With India’s fourth-ever AFC Asian Cup appearance looming, has this performance against China raised hopes off a knockout stage appearance

A 0-0 draw against China PR at the Suzhou Olympic Stadium on Saturday has raised fresh hopes that the national team can get out of a tough group stage at the AFC Asian Cup in January 2019.

Despite China getting plenty of opportunities, India held on to a nervy stalemate against an opponent 21 spots ahead of them in the FIFA rankings. Incidentally this was the first international match between the two teams in the past 21 years.

India opened its medal account in the Youth Olympic Games with shooter Tushar Mane bagging a silver in the men's 10m air rifle on the opening day of competitions here on Sunday.

At the AFC Asian Cup, India will be in a tough group alongside the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Thailand. Therefore, this result is an encouraging sign of how the team can cope when facing heavy artillery opponents like UAE, who are regulars at the World Cup.

While Bahrain is expected to be the other team to get to the knockout stages from Group A, a good showing by India could still help. This is because the four best third-placed teams will be progressing into the round-of-16 and therefore, a high goal differential certainly helps.

Lippi to be sacked?

Meanwhile, China PR’s performance against the Indian national team has put World Cup winning coach Marcelo Lippi in a tough spot with calls for his resignation being the chatter across Chinese social media today.

Triple jumper Arpinder Singh created history by becoming the first Indian to win a medal in the IAAF Continental Cup as he clinched a bronze with a modest effort of 16.59m yesterday.

Lippi’s lack of preparedness was evident when in the post-match comments, he revealed that India’s performance was surprising considering their 1-2 loss to Maldives in the SAFF Cup final.

But the Indian national team had sent a second-string team to the regional tournament comprising off U-23 players like Sumeet Passi, Farukh Chaudhary and Vinit Rai. Chaudhary and Rai made appearances for the team last night against the Chinese as well.

Indian coach Stephen Constantine later congratulated some of these players and said, "Congratulations to all the players. Five of them who ended the game are U-23 players and two who started were U-23 players as well. That's my policy to develop young players and give them more opportunities,"

Constantine, who had earlier talked about the Indian team needing to defend against the Chinese, later added, "We have shown in the last four years that we are a very difficult team to beat. We may not have the quality which some of the other teams in Asia have. But I stand for my team physically and competitively against any team in Asia. The boys were outstanding today."